ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – After months of back-and-forth discussions on a series of issues and an election, officials on the Delta County Board of Commissioners and the Delta Conservation District say it’s time to move forward and mend fences.
In April, the former Delta County Board of Commissioners voted to send a complaint to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) against Conservation District Board Chair Joe Kaplan. Then-commissioner Bob Barron accused Kaplan of potentially breaching the County’s confidentiality and discriminating against the County by inquiring about its enrollment in the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program.
At its first meeting since the election of three new commissioners, the Delta County Board voted to withdraw that complaint, with the county administrator verifying there had not been a confidentiality breach. At Wednesday’s Conservation District Board meeting, Kaplan said the issue “for all intents and purposes was resolved,” following the County Board’s motion to send a letter of withdrawal to MDARD.
“As important as it is to resolve the issue, it’s really nice that the new County Commission voted to release the forest management plans,” Kaplan told WZMQ 19. “Without the county’s willingness to share those plans over their public lands, that’s really a disadvantage of how to address the issue.”
As of January, the Conservation District no longer oversees county parks. However, recently-elected County Commissioner and District Liaison Matt Jensen says while each entity has its own goals, it is important for them to maintain a strong relationship.
“Sometimes before, when they were together, that might have gotten overshadowed a little bit,” he said.”It’s still a good partnership because there’s still going to be stuff that’s going to happen within the district that county parks are going to also have to still reach out and do stuff with them based on how the parks are structured.”
Jensen and Kaplan both say a main priority now is rebuilding trust between the County and the Conservation District.
“We stand ready to encourage or assist the county in managing their public lands in the most appropriate way and repairing relationships with the state, the Natural Resources Trust Fund, and getting input from the public,” Kaplan said. “It’s been a really narrow spectrum of people making decisions, and it’s time to just open that up and fulfill our goals of bringing accountability and transparency to local governance.”
“There’s wonderful ideas that are passing back and forth I think between both groups now,” said Jensen. “Some of the contentiousness that you had seen earlier I think is starting to wane. I think we have a good basis moving forward already.”
The Conservation District still faces a lawsuit from former District Manager Rory Mattson, who Kaplan says is suing over a “breach of contract” involving payments and a bonus approved by the previous board. The Conservation District Board went into a closed session to review a correspondence from its attorney but did not take any action.
